


Ethics

by narsus



Category: Prey (Video Game 2017)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Conversations, Drinking, Gen, Neurodiversity, Pre-Game(s), Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-27
Updated: 2017-08-27
Packaged: 2018-12-20 16:08:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11924460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/narsus/pseuds/narsus
Summary: “You can’t just…” Alex gestured in a wide arc with his arms. “Science.”“I can too.” Morgan grinned.





	Ethics

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Prey 2017 belongs to Arkane Studios and Bethesda Softworks. No profit is being made from this work.

“But what does it mean?”  
“Don’t be dumb, Alex.”  
“What does it mean to us? To Transtar? To the public? _Specifically_.”  
“Oh.”  
“You can’t just…” Alex gestured in a wide arc with his arms. “ _Science_.”  
“I can too.” Morgan grinned.

The memory of that conversation woke him up with the same broad grin plastered across his face. He could ‘science’ with the best of them. In the same way that Alex could business or tech or group theory or any of the other things Alex occasionally did. Except maybe one of the things that he didn’t do, being Alex, was wake up with a hangover, feeling like something had died in his mouth.

“How was the alcohol processing experiment last night?”

Alex’s weight settled on the side of the bed.

“I… I think…”

Morgan just about managed to sit up with Alex’s help and take the glass of water handed to him. He guzzled it down and waited for the inevitable lecture. When it didn’t happen he glanced cautiously over at his brother. Alex sat on the bed, leaning back against the headboard, eyes closed, hands folded ponderously on his stomach.

“Uh…”  
“Think carefully, Morgan. Do you want to go brush your teeth or put some clothes on first. I’ll keep my eyes closed either way.”

Of course he’d climbed into bed naked. That had benefits and disadvantages depending on the circumstances. It had most likely disadvantaged him this time since he’d apparently climbed into Alex’s bed rather this his own last night.

“Uh…. Brush my teeth.”  
“There’s a spare toothbrush in the bathroom.”  
“Alex…”  
“Go clean up. We can have breakfast together after.”

Thankfully there was a spare toothbrush and a set of clothes in the bathroom. Having done the best tidy up he could manage at the current time Morgan stepped partially out of the bathroom and leaned carefully against the doorframe.

“I’m sorry?”  
“Are you?” Alex still had his eyes closed.  
“I guess.”  
“What for?”  
“For… being drunk?”  
“Really?” Alex cracked an eye open.  
“No, not really.”  
“Ah.” The eye closed.  
“I’m sorry for this.” Morgan gestured to the bed and Alex.  
“That’s enough then.”

Breakfast was brought up to Alex’s suite. It consisted of what looked like congee with thinly sliced eel and mushrooms. Morgan wrinkled his nose at it.

“Take out the eel if you like.”  
“I was hoping for glutinous rice.”  
“This might be easier on your stomach.”

Of course Alex was right. Morgan certainly felt a lot more stable once he’d eaten, eel and all.

“I was celebrating.” He volunteered at length.  
Alex poured the tea silently.  
“This is a breakthrough! We can use their component parts to do… well, just about anything!”  
“Can we?”  
“Of course we can! I just need to work through the results and-“  
“And is this ethically sound?”  
“What? No! Nothing on the cutting edge of biotechnology is ‘ethically sound’! We can’t make progress without pushing boundaries!”  
Alex sighed. “They’re opening another investigation into your research.”  
“What? Where?”  
“It doesn’t matter where anymore. The work you did when-“  
“Is it those idiots in Tsinghua again?”  
“Hong Kong.”  
“Oh.”  
“Precisely.”  
“I didn’t breach anything, Alex! I followed every single dictate in those stupid ethics documents! Every last one!”  
“That’s part of the problem. You followed the letter of the law but not the spirit of it.”  
“What else was I meant to do? They asked me to follow those rules so I followed them!”  
“And you don’t understand why the rules are even there in the first place.”  
“Do you?” Morgan scowled. “Of course you do.”  
“Which is why I run Transtar not you. But I can’t do it alone.”  
“I don’t see why not.”  
“How far do you think I’d get without you? How much would the company have grown beyond logistics and automation without your vision, your insight?”  
“I don’t know?”  
Another sigh. “Morgan, do you know why I stepped up the refurbishment of Talos One?”  
“I don’t know, Alex, you do have questionable taste.” Morgan started to smile again.  
“It’s Art Deco, Morgan. Very classic, very early nineteen-hundreds. Anyway, that wasn’t the point I was making. I refurbished Talos One so it was more than just a remote research facility, it had to be somewhere you’d be able live so that you could conduct your research… without interruption.”  
“In extra-national space.”  
“Exactly. Where the letter of the law does not apply and no government or state department could even dream of assembling a prosecution case.”  
“I could push people out of airlocks and nobody could ever hold me responsible.”  
A raised eyebrow.  
“How did you know?”  
“I cut off your access to the docking bay systems after two of my detractors had ‘accidents’ before they could get into their shuttles.”  
“Oh. I mean… they…”  
Alex shook his head. “You can’t tell the difference between someone calling me names and someone threatening the entire company.”  
“They shouldn’t say those things about your weight!”  
“I know. They shouldn’t. But it’s not enough to die for.”  
“Isn’t it?”  
“No, Morgan. At least not as far as society and the law judges it.”  
“I don’t understand.”  
“That’s alright. You never have. Even when we were children you couldn’t tell.”  
This time Morgan sighed. “That’s why I’m defective.”  
“No, what’s why you’re different. You see the world differently to other people and that has value in many ways. Anyone who says that you’re defective is a fool.”  
“That’s what father said.”  
“Father won’t be President of Transtar for long.”  
“Alex?”  
“Don’t worry about that now. That’s my job. Right now all you need to do is write up your… science, and settle your hangover.”  
Morgan grinned again. “The science bit I can do. You deal with the people thing, Alex.”  
“I’ll do that.”  
“Good.” Morgan yawned. “I find people pretty boring mostly.”  
“I noticed.”  
“I mean, not you. You’re not people. Yus aren’t people mostly.”  
“No? I suppose I hadn’t thought of it like that.”  
“You’re not people, Alex. You’re some kind of… supercomputer that woke up one day and decided that it wanted to eat eel with everything.”

Alex helped Morgan back to the bedroom and eased him down onto the bed. Staring down at his brother’s sleeping face he couldn’t help but ponder Morgan’s statement about people. As if people were a single mass, linked by one mind, with everyone feeling and thinking and hearing each other’s thoughts. Would the world have been more peaceful like that? Perhaps. But Alex wasn’t certain he’d want to find out what a world like that would look like. A world in stasis. A world that had embraced a peace and silence much like the perpetual peace of the grave.

 

It’s only a few months after their conversation that he has a chance to test his conviction.

“I don’t want your peace or your silence! I’m human!”  
He swings the wrench, fallen from his brother’s hand, with all the force his can muster, and watches with a grim satisfaction as the Typhon explodes into a black splatter across the floor.

This will have to be enough. He will do what needs to be done.

**Author's Note:**

> Seemingly Morgan has worked with both Tsinghua University and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.  
> Alex on the other hand may have opinions about Kant.


End file.
